NO MAN'S LAND. 191 



fancy you were looking out of a great window at a 

 man and horse on the turf outside. To use an artist's 

 slang expression, " there was not a bit of paint about 

 it ; " the horse and his jockey lived and breathed. 



The first time I was in that place it had just been 

 opened after having been shut up for a quarter of a 

 century ; and from what I could gather, it appeared 

 the noble owner had closed the house after the death 

 of his young wife, and never visited it again. The 

 only living creatures that ever entered it during the 

 twenty-five years were two women-servants who had 

 grown old about the place ; and they only let in light 

 and air at rare intervals. 



The garden and stables were a long way from the 

 house, in the grand deer-park. Below these were the 

 fish-ponds and stews. A truly sad sight was that 

 once fine garden, gone to ruin and disorder. The 

 fruit-trees, such of them as were left erect many lay 

 prone on the ground still bore fruit after a fashion, 

 peaches, nectarines, plums, and pears. The grape- 

 houses, rotting as they stood, had fallen down through 

 decay. Rafters and lights, plate and brickwork, all 

 had tumbled in ; and the vines had availed them- 

 selves of all this litter and confusion, and climbed 



